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Peltier water heater??

14K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  hvacgaspiping 
#1 ·
Would a 437W Peltier make a good water heater? Thinking about this because the current water heater takes over 2000W of electricity, and takes 15minutes to make water hot! Would a 437W peltier with the hot side attached to a waterblock heat the water to 100 degrees centigrade, or close to that? If not, would 2 437W Peltiers do it?


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#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by cgrado View Post
I think a peltier only moves heat, it doesn't really generate any.
TEC generate plenty of heat. The heat they generate is just inefficy. No TECs will not make a good water heater. A 2000w water heater is better because it is optimized and designed to do just that.
 
#8 ·
no its a reaction on the inside that creates one side being cold and the other being hot, but due to the laws of physics the cold side when placed on a "HOT" CPU transfers the heat to the warm side of the TEC, and continues to try and cool the CPU... andthe heat is expelled from the other side of the TEC through a heatsink of some type...
 
#9 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by cgrado View Post
I though peltiers used current to transfer heat from one side to another? i guess it uses the heat from the air to heat the other side?
Correct, it pumps thermal energy from one side to the other. Cold is just the absence of heat so you are right. It takes heat from the air and moves it to the other side. However... like all processes, there is inefficiencies. TECs are quite inefficient so you put 100w of electrical energy in... you get like 70w of thermal pumping. That 30w is the wasted energy.
 
#10 ·
Electric hot water tanks must have enough wattage to produce the necessary BTU to heat water fast enough for normal recovery. 2K watts is enough for just one heating element at a time to produce enough BTU. Plus, the top heating element is the one which energizes first for fast recovery, as water is drawn off the top of the tank. When the temp rises enough, the thermostat switches to the bottom heating element to even out the overall temperature and mantain the proper level of heat. Since it takes such a high wattage to achieve the above, only one heating element is energized at a time. The point of this explanation is to illustrate the high amount of wattage needed, and the futility of using a TEC for the above. Someone has already mentioned the reduced efficiency of the TEC for this purpose.
 
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